We are also aware of the great support this site gets from all the true fans of the show including the Sullivan family. Here follows an official statement from Jim Sullivan regarding the cuts made to Only Fools and the recent statement from the BBC that all cuts were made with the Sullivan families approval…

It has come to our attention that many of you have complained to the BBC with regard to the editing of the recent daytime repeats of Only Fools and Horses, and that in response the BBC have stated that these edits were given the ‘okay’ by John Sullivan’s family.

While it is true that myself, and my brother, Dan, did create, and give the green light for most of the edits that you saw in these repeats, I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight, let you know exactly what we were up against and assure you that nobody understands and shares your frustration and annoyance more than us.

Back in June, we, John’s family, were contacted and asked if we would like to take a look at the editing for the repeats. We were sent an outline of the edits for all the episodes (many of which required a full two minutes of material to be cut) then Dan and I went to the BBC’s reversioning department where we were shown these proposed edits. The large majority of these were truly awful, with little, or in most cases no, consideration whatsoever given to story coherence or gags. Many were so bad and poorly executed that they really had to be seen to be believed. Still many more were completely baffling. For example, Del saying “Monchengladbach” to Anna in the episode ‘From Prussia with Love’ had been removed – our only conclusion being that some bright spark at the BBC, unsure of what this actually means, but gripped by the sheer terror of possibly, perhaps, just maybe offending somebody, decided it best to be safe than sorry.

Only Fools and Horses Cuts - Anna in From Prussia with Love

Other examples (and these are just a few) include an edit in the episode ‘Hole In One’ that actually came right in the middle of a joke and took out the punch line. In the episode ‘No Greater Love’ Rodney’s entire telephone conversation with Irene, and Del’s reaction to it, had been removed (I assume that it had been deemed offensive to gay people.) In the episode ‘Ashes to Ashes’ there was an edit that was so bad that I had to point out that, unless changed, viewers would think there was something wrong with their televisions. In the episode ‘The Long Legs of the Law’ the ‘Tommy Razzle and his ‘dog’ joke had been removed (offensive to women or dogs? I can’t say for certain.) In the episode ‘Big Brother’ the entire opening dialogue between Rodney and Grandad, in which Grandad talks about Sidney Poitier always playing the black fella, had been removed (as a result of this, and had we not insisted it be put back, Grandad would not have appeared in the entire opening scene.) And it goes on; Del’s line “knees up mother Patel” in the episode ‘As One Door Closes’ had been removed (the surname ‘Patel’ was also removed from the episode ‘The Longest Night’.) Del’s harmless and good natured joke with Ranji in the episode ‘Who’s A Pretty Boy?’ had been removed. The line “Frank Bruno’s arse” in the episode ‘It’s Only Rock and Roll’ was removed (this, you understand, was not because of the word ‘arse’ which was deemed fine to remain in other episodes.) Also gone, in the episode ‘As One Door Closes’, was Uncle Albert’s mere mention of the fact that Denzil is black. I do not exaggerate when I say this, but it eventually reached the point where we could not help but feel that the merest sight of a black or Asian face on the screen was somehow pushing the boundaries. Oddly enough (but quite rightly) Denzil’s line about Rodney being “the whitest man” he’s ever seen went untouched. Apart from this total lack of consistency in its own reasoning (if you can call it that), we found the BBC’s attitude towards these edits, and the show in general, to be careless, lazy and indifferent. It was made perfectly clear to us that the BBC has no concern whatsoever for quality and precision; only a bizarre obsession with whether or not they may be offending certain people. Sadly, I expect that the fact that they are, in taking this approach, actually offending a lot of people, has never even crossed their minds. When Dad first envisioned and wrote Only Fools, it was his intention to explore and express the vibrant, multicultural face of (what was then) modern London. Why the BBC has such a problem with this and is so afraid of it that it resorts to censorship is beyond me. All I do know is that they are extremely determined to create problems where there aren’t any.

By far the biggest cock up of all (at least that I’m aware of) came in the episode ‘Sleeping Dogs Lie’ – any of you who saw this particular repeat will know what I’m talking about. We did oversee the editing of a version of this episode, which we were happy with (as happy as possible), however, the version that was aired was a completely different one, the existence of which we were not even aware. This, I would like to make very clear, was the BBC’s mistake. We were promised that every episode would be rechecked before transmission, and this did not happen. On bringing this to the BBC’s attention, they did accept full responsibility and apologised. I was resigned to let the matter go and accept it as just one of those things, but for them to now suggest that we were in any way culpable for this, upsets us very much. We did not give the BBC the okay to make such sloppy and amateurish mistakes and we are, like you, very angry about the whole situation. We did our very best, in what is a very difficult time for us, to salvage and restore the damage done to these episodes. We would like you all to know that we care extremely deeply about Only Fools and the great legacy that Dad has left for us all to enjoy and that we will always strive to respect and protect that legacy. However, when it comes to the BBC’s current standards and regulations, there really is only so much one can do.

25 Responses to “Jim Sullivan AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT on Only Fools cuts”

Some of the lines they removed are absolutely ridiculous. I get the world ‘changes’ but the comments arent made in a vicious way & certain people need to understand that this is the british humour. If you dont like dont watch.
But I dont understand how its ok to leave in the ‘whitest man’ line but remove everything else that even remotely points to using certain words or talking about other races/people. Its impossible to be racist towards whites seemly, people use comments like that to us and we dont care. Maybe because we have got a sense of hunour and wer not uptight & like to complain at the slightest thing.

These edits are a complete joke. How can the BBC justify airing at lunchtime the series ‘Doctors’ which many times contains storylines that are of a very sexual nature? How can they show storylines showing gay relationships, men kissing etc at lunchtime yet with Only Fools they cut things that are very tame. So now its not allowed to say anything anti gay etc yet they can say what they like about other minority groups.

Censorship in any form is disgusting and pathetic. I just want the originals to be released –in one way or another — to the public in their intact uncut form, therefore circumventing all the bbc’s bull.

I dont see how the BBC can show daytime repeats when they gave licence to UK Gold to do the same. Are UK Gold versions uncut (other than ad breaks)? Proof the BBC dont care two hoots about the public – days before Christmas they include on the viewing schedule a Take That concert which no doubt millions of people had bought on DVD or Bluray to give as a gift to friends or family. Why do that so close to Christmas?

The BBC have history of cannibalising shows, if anyone has bought the Young Ones on DVD over the years they are nothing compared to the originally transmitted versions. In fact one of the 2nd series episodes had a scene ENTERED which wasn’t on telly and some other scenes ripped out completely!
Get it sorted BBC, look after the fans for once and not just look at cheap and easy ways to fill the coffers again!

They never considered that someone from Albania might be offended because of of ridiculing car radios, or someone from Mauritius because of ridiculing computers, or someone from Fiji because of ridiculing ski outfit, or someone from former Yugoslavia (now 7 countries – Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia) because of ridiculing Riesling, or someone from Romania because of ridiculing suits, or someone from Australia because of ridiculing looks of local woman etc.

No, BBC cuts out only what UK government thinks that will “offend” fanatics currently living in UK. The result is quite opposite – cuts offend majority of UK population and the majority of global population, for the sake of going down the hair of fanatical minority that should be conditioned to accept standards of local culture if it intends to maintain UK citizenship and hospitality.

BBC is so uptight, that if they owned Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”, they’d probably paint new shirt over torn one that exposes breast, just not to “offend” those who think woman should wear dresses that resemble Ghillie suits.

The greatest sitcom the BBC has ever produced deserves the utmost respect IMO. It should never be subject to *any* cuts, if at all possible. ‘Fawlty Towers’ never is – can you imagine the uproar if they cut a single scene out of it? Why is Only Fools not accorded the same privilege?

What happened with “Sleeping Dogs Lie”, anyone? Any episode I knew to be uncut on DVD, I didn’t bother with in the repeat season.

the bbc should just leave it alone its pure wrighting genius from john sullivan. i would like to thank jim for puting the statement up for us all to read. i cant understand why they cut it on the bbc when gold is a bbc owned compay (so i am led to belive) and they dont cut it on there its pc gone mad leave the clasics alone bbc.

I agree with Tracey Fotheringham. The BBC doesnt care about only fools anymore. Its made them all the money that it can so they are not bothered. Let GOLD show it as it was intended. They did an excellent job of re-mastering it it looked lovely. They know how to treat the classic comedies, not just only fools, but steptoe, open all hours, porridge all get treated with respect. I doubt we will ever get a ‘proper’ release of the show uncut as it was intended as the BBC doesnt want to know. I think the BBC showed it during the day cos it knew no one would be there to watch it and notice them do a hatchet job.

i think the bbc will just keep hacking away at all the only fools episodes until they have reduced all 64 episodes into one single 90 mins episode, they really are a bunch of plonkers.

i wonder why they broadcast only fools in the afternoons when most people are out at work and not in the evenings when there would be a larger audience,

looking forward to watching david jasons new sitcom ‘the royal bodyguard’, does anybody remember a 1977-81 sitcom starring david jason ‘a sharp intake of breath’ , i always thought this was a very funny comedy, why sir david jason has blocked the release of this is a mystery.

i have 12 episodes of ‘a sharp intake of breath’ on dvd, it’s not an official release though purchased of the internet recently, quality of picture quite good, i found it quite funny, if it wasn’t for me watching david jason in this itv sitcom first, i would not have got into ‘only fools & horses’ and everything else he did afterwoods .

Thanks for posting the statement up here for us all to read. For the BBC to treat their greatest ever sitcom in the ways he described is an absolute disgrace. The only comfort I can take from the BBC’s slapdash approach to the episodes they showed over the summer is that it seems it’s made Jim and his family even more intent on protecting the shows legacy and under the cirucmstances this can only be a good thing for us all fans.

Quite frankly folks, let’s forget the BBC altogether. Jim, Dan, and the whole Sullivan clan have enough to cope with anyway, without the BEEB getting all PC.

It is clear to me that the BBC don not want to show anymore OFAH, so why not let GOLD carry on showing them. They have re-mastered them all, they show them without the cuts, and they show them all the time, which for all of us OFAH addicts is wonderful, to have Del and Rodders on tap for the whole weekend is a dream come true!

I think the BBC have a damn cheek, when you think what we pay for our licences. Seems bloody strange that none of the other shows get cut about doesn’t it!!!!

I agree that some things had to be taken out, due to time constraints and Bad language during the day etc etc..

But the BBC are a joke, I hate how if a show gets, say… 1 million viewers and just 14 people complain, they seem to adhere to the opinion of the 14 nitwits who have complained,(with may i say.. have too much time on their hands) – Than the vast majority of people.

I like many other fans of the show, Remain constantly baffled with the BBC’s idea of Political correctness in the 21st century.

Denzil says “Whitest man i,ve ever seen” No Problem

Roy Slater says “Black as newgates knocker”

I bet they are practically sh!tting themselves

The bbc are a joke, and i must say – The DVD boxset is equally ridiculous